Driving to Dragonweyr - Night 12

8am scheduled departures for all three volunteer groups caused madness about the house this morning. Just minutes after all our bags were packed into the trailer a rogue cloud arrived and dumped about 15 minutes worth of rain, forcing us to scramble about in search of a tarp. Shortly after 8 we were on the road for our 3.5 hour drive down to the Stanthorpe area. The drive took us up over the Main Range unto the drier plateau of inland Queensland .
Our intended destination was the Dragonweyr Reserve, and this time we made it without taking any unintentional detours. The reserve is a private land holding that has voluntarily placed itself under the Queensland Conservation Act of 1992. Adrian Hobba, the owner, is a retiree who runs blacksmithing schools out of the backyard of the place. The Hobbas have a nice little homestead which is entirely solar powered.
We pitched our tents on the lawn and had a nice lunch consisting of sausages and salad, provided by the Hobbas. A small crew of Green Corps members was also onsite today assessing trail needs. Their team leader, Rob, was quite an interesting bloke and gave me some good ideas on places to go down in Tasmania.
By the time we were set up and finished eating it was almost 2pm so the remainder of the day was free for exploration. The group took a small bush walk down to the local swimming hole, which wasn’t much more that a large mud puddle. Most of Australia has been in a 5-year drought, and the Dragonweyr Reserve is no exception.
In the evening we had a good meal of chili and rice. After dinner the crew played a few rousing games of spoons. Night comes on quick and cool up here on the plateau and I was glad to have my 15 degree rated sleeping bag.
What I Learned Today: While my relative internal compass remains fully operational, my absolute one is entirely messed up. I went for a small solo bush walk today and easily found my way back, however I thought I was heading east the entire time when in fact I was going west. I continually looked down at my compass in disbelief. The sun seems to rise in the west and set in the east. It must be the fact that the sun’s arc is backwards and that I am much closer to the equator than I am used to (27 degrees latitude)

Driving to Dragonweyr - Night 12

Stanthorpe, Australia